


Breaking The Ice

by Cephy



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Community: no_true_pair, M/M, Weapons Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-08
Updated: 2009-06-08
Packaged: 2017-10-06 07:47:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cephy/pseuds/Cephy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: "Asch and Riku are warriors blessed with a military/edged-weapon fetish".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaking The Ice

Riku stood in the hall and watched his commander-- his _former_ commander walk away, leaving him with the too-stiff collar of a new uniform rubbing his throat and a slip of paper in his hand, already wrinkling from his grip. He didn't bother looking at it, since he already knew what it said: bare information, just the official details of his promotion, the number of the room beside him, and the name of the person he'd be sharing quarters with for the foreseeable future.

At least double rooms had to be better than main barracks. So long as his new roommate didn't snore, anyway.

Riku took a breath as he put his hand on the latch; he braced himself, then frowned and forced his shoulders to relax instead. Opened the door.

His first impression was _red_\-- red hair, red-edged uniform, and he had the quick, ruefully relieved thought that at least his new roommate's nickname was partially just a description, after all. Not that he'd been _worried_\-- they were both on the same side, pledged to fight back the Darkness with the rest of the Order. But when someone was called "The Bloody", and was rumoured to be a favoured student of the Commandant himself, a person couldn't help but wonder.

The door swung shut behind Riku while he and the room's other occupant eyed each other, coolly assessing. Asch was seated on his bunk, looking like he'd just come in off the parade ground-- he was special ops, just like Riku, which meant that he didn't _need_ to wear the full uniform all the time, but there it was anyway. And there behind him-- Riku's eye caught on the scabbard, and stuck there.

Asch noticed, and quirked an eyebrow. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," was the first thing he said to Riku.

Riku, in return, narrowed his eyes and answered challenge with challenge. "In here? Please."

Asch smirked, then without another word he reached back to grab his sword belt and headed for the door. Riku took a moment to shrug off his own uniform tunic, leaving him much-relieved in the sleeveless undershirt, before following. They fell in together in the hallway, shoulder to shoulder like they'd done so a million times before.

The gyms set aside for the officers weren't very different than those for the grunts, though that wasn't much of a surprise since there were only so many ways to stock a gym. Maybe the training dummies were a little more durable; maybe the racks on the walls were carved and stained instead of rough greenwood. It still smelled of sweat and steel.

Riku drew in a deep breath of it, and let it out slowly.

They found a small side room, empty, with a smooth wooden floor and a door that locked. Once inside, Asch shook off the scabbard and held his sword up for Riku's inspection. A beautiful piece of work, all the more so for its traditional simplicity. It was inlaid with more red, like runnels of blood frozen in place, and the steel gleamed straight and razor-sharp along the blade.

Returning the courtesy, Riku narrowed his eyes and called his own weapon, feeling the faint tingle in his arm as fonons shifted and separated and reformed until the hilt was solid in his hand. Asch's eyes were avid as they studied the weapon-- jagged-edged and clawed like a key, with a heavy sweeping guard. It had never been Riku's conscious decision to give his blade the design it had, but it did somehow seem-- right.

They locked eyes as their blades lifted in salute, and then there was nothing but the clash of metal, the scuff of feet, the rasp of breath coming too fast and too deep. It wasn't long before Riku realized they were fairly evenly matched. Not long, too, before he discovered at least part of the reason why Asch wore the uniform-- the flare and swirl of the tunic drew attention away from his blade, beyond it, confused the eye. A constant dance of danger and distraction, expertly played.

More by luck than anything else, Riku eventually swept out Asch's feet, pinned him to the floor with the keyblade at his throat-- and felt the sharp nudge of a sword blade at his own side even as he settled into place. For a moment they lay in stalemate, breathing each other's breath, then Asch lunged up as Riku dropped down, and they were biting at each other's lips with the steel still live between them.

It was over shamefully fast, leaving them both panting; a thin line of red trickled under Asch's chin, blending with the collar of his uniform, and Riku could feel a wet warmth against his side that wasn't just sweat. They simply looked at each other evenly as they got their breathing under control again, then Asch broke into a wicked smirk.

"If you snore," he said, in startling echo of Riku's own earlier thoughts, "I'll have to kill you while you sleep."

Riku laughed, and pushed himself to his feet. "Promises, promises."


End file.
